Sun, Aug 30, 2009 page11

• Business Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH AGENCIES
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  ■LIVESTOCK

  Sheep sold for world record

  A sheep has sold for a world record £231,000 (US$376,200) at a Scottish livestock auction, a British sheep society said. Deveronvale Perfection, a Texel breed admired by his new owner for his “great body and strong loin,” will be used for breeding. Experts are predicting the tup, the farming term for an uncastrated sheep, will prove a bargain over the long term for his new owner. “It comes down to genetics,” said British Texel Sheep Society chief executive, John Yates, on the society’s Web site. “Breeders are looking at the decades of sheep that this blood line can produce.” Graham Morrison, who owned Perfection, said the price surpassed his wildest dreams, the Web site said. Farmer Jimmy Douglas of Cairness, Scotland, who forked out the record amount, was quoted as saying Perfection was the best lamb he had ever seen.

  ■PROPERTY

  Qatar to invest in Songbird

  Qatar Holding LLC said it would become the largest shareholder in Songbird Estates PLC, the biggest landlord in London’s Canary Wharf, after the UK property company agreed on Friday to sell shares to repay loans. Qatar Holding would own 14.8 percent of Songbird by investing in the company’s preferred stock, the Doha-based arm of the Qatar Investment Authority said in a statement. Songbird agreed to sell shares to institutions, including Qatar Holding and China’s sovereign wealth fund to repay £880 million (US$1.4 billion) in bank loans. The UK’s biggest real-estate companies tapped investors for cash this year after a slump in commercial-property values threatened to make them breach the terms of their bank loans. Songbird is the largest shareholder in the company that owns 16 of the 30 office buildings that comprise Canary Wharf, an area by the River Thames covering 39 hectares.

  ■INVESTMENT

  CIC boosts fund investment

  China Investment Corp (CIC, 中投公司), China’s sovereign wealth fund, is continuing to shift its investments away from cash and shifting billions to hedge funds and private-equity funds, chairman Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) said. China Investment has invested “many times” the US$500 million that CIC was reported to have placed in hedge funds and private-equity firms in June, Lou said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. He said China Investment was also investing in fund-of-funds. Lou said Beijing-based CIC’s performance this year “has not been bad” following last year’s 2.1 percent decline in its global investments. He didn’t elaborate. China Investment had US$297.5 billion in assets and 87.4 percent of its global portfolio invested in cash and cash equivalents at the end of last year, the fund reported earlier this month.

  ■FINANCE

  Shin Kong to raise funds

  Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) said on Friday that its board had approved another NT$5 billion (US$151.9 million) fund-raising plan by issuing new shares, it said in a press statement. The new shares will first be open to the company’s shareholders for subscription before being released to the company chairman or via private placement, the statement said without providing details, including a timetable. Along with the earlier US$375 million fund raised via the issuance of global depositary receipts late last month, the new funds will be used to boost the capital adequacy ratio of the firm’s life insurance subsidiary, Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), Taiwan’s third-largest life insurer.
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